The tough part is prepping the parts to be re-plated. I have a vibratory polisher that came with "de-rusting" media. I tried leaving the hardware in there for up to a week, and it still wasn't clean. What i wound up doing was sandblasting the parts, and then polishing them on a wire wheel. It's quite time consuming, but the results are great.

I have one of those Eastwood zinc electroplating kits and am very disappointed with the results. It seems like the coating is just too thin. When I polish them, I'd rub through to bare metal almost every time. I've experimented with different durations and even stepped up the voltage, but I just couldn't duplicate the look and durability of the original zinc plating.

To make a long story short, I found that having parts professionally zinc plated wasn't nearly as expensive as I had thought. I usually bring in about 150-200 pieces of stripped and polished hardware, they plate the lot of them in 2-3 days, for less than $100.00. They can also do yellow zinc and black.

Just thought I'd throw my two cents in...hope it helps.

Joe G